


East Blue Sonnets

by printfogey



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Sonnets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-16
Updated: 2012-03-16
Packaged: 2017-11-02 00:51:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/printfogey/pseuds/printfogey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four poems from the perspective of Usopp, Zoro, Sanji and Nami before each of them meet Luffy for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	East Blue Sonnets

**Author's Note:**

> I confess to have taken some liberties with rhyme and metre, as well as simplifying the rhyming scheme: a hardliner might call these "sonnetlike poems" rather than true sonnets. Concrit and other feedback much appreciated on anything – rhythm, characterisation, word choice and what-have-you.
> 
> Spoilers: None (edit: well, none past Nami's background in the Arlong Park arc).   
> Disclaimer: Though unnamed here, they all belong to Eiichiro Oda as part of One Piece, and are used without permission for the purpose of entertainment.

He’s come here since forever, since before  
His memory holds. He’s spun a thousand tales  
About the waves below, and so much more:  
The nameless reaches where his father sails.

The ships pass by at times, but don’t come close;  
It’s up to him to keep the people here  
From choking on pure peace and stolid prose,  
With splendid boasts and pranks beyond compare.

The first step seems impossible to take.  
Yet someday he will follow ocean streams,  
Sail far and wide (he hopes), prepared to stake

His life on going where Adventure gleams…  
It _sounds_ so good. He prays he’ll never wake.   
To give up the sea would mean to give up dreams.

 

*

 

It’s not the sea he needs, it’s not the waves,  
the roar and sigh of them; the seagulls’ call,  
nor is it gold and silver that he craves –   
there is a man he needs to find. That’s all.

He does not need companions: he can walk  
The road alone, be strong in deed and name.  
He shrugs at people’s stares and fearful talk.  
The promise burns inside him like a flame.

But it’s too easy to get stuck on land.  
The world won’t match the course his heart has set,  
It twists and turns – too soft, like shifting sand,

and men will try to catch him in their net.  
But he can’t break; can’t lose what he has planned,  
no matter what. He’s broken no law yet.

 

*

 

The ships he sees don’t pass; they come here first,  
Marines and pirates both; to have a rest,  
To sate their hunger and to quench their thirst,  
He’s seen so many crews; he’s not impressed.

And if he gazes out at times and sees  
Another, sunlit sea - _where they all roam,  
Ten thousand different fish who live in peace,  
In that abode, their legendary home,_

_Delicious all; where beauteous mermaids swim,  
Most exquisite, so full of charm and grace;  
Where dolphins leap, and hunger can’t step in_ \- 

\- he knows it’s childish fancies, knows his place  
is where an obligation’s holding him,  
a debt he can’t repay. And so he stays.

 

*

 

She does not see the waves. She sees the gold;  
She hears the clink of coins within her mind.  
The treasures that those pirate ships may hold,  
Call out to her, ‘Come, see what you can find.’

She’s good at this. She’ll smile and infiltrate,  
Sneak through and make the grab – then run like hell.  
Then, off to count the spoils, re-calculate,  
And ponder how to reach the Grand Line well.

It will take charts and planning, luck and guile,  
But oh! the catching, if the fish will bite!  
She might use allies for a little while; 

But not for long. It's hers alone, this fight.  
She'll add the profits to her hard-won pile;  
And buy her village and get back her life.


End file.
